Peevish Pen

Ruminations on reading, writing, genealogy and family history, rural living, retirement, aging—and sometimes cats.

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Location: Rural Virginia, United States

I'm an elderly retired teacher who writes. Among my books are Ferradiddledumday (Appalachian version of the Rumpelstiltskin story), Stuck (middle grade paranormal novel), Patches on the Same Quilt (novel set in Franklin County, VA), Them That Go (an Appalachian novel), Miracle of the Concrete Jesus & Other Stories, and several Kindle ebooks.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

When It Rains

IT'S BEEN POURING!

This morning's shower gave us about a quarter inch. Not much—but a welcome relief to the drought. The sky, however, stayed cloudy and ominous all day.

After I checked Polecat Creek Farm this afternoon, on my way home I stopped by my cousin's house to visit. Naturally, we talked about the weather. She mentioned how sultry the morning had been.

"Yeah," I said. "Just like before a tornado or hurricane."

As we sat in her carport, the wind came up and the air grew cooler. I looked southward. Big dark clouds were rolling in.

"When weather comes from the south, it's usually bad," I said. I figured I better head home—a mile up the road. Pulling into my driveway, I saw a big lightning bolt slice the western sky.

I turned on the TV as soon as I got in and caught the middle of Dr. Phil. By then, rain had started. Soon the show was interrupted: Tornado warning for Franklin County. Eastern Franklin County. The danger extended up from Martinsville in a northeastern line. Peckerwood Level might be hit at 5:25. I live between Union Hall and Peckerwood Level.

Then the weather maps showed Penhook. Rain was falling harder.

Uh-oh. I unplugged the phone lines and prepared to move to the basement. Rain came in torrents.

But the tornado didn't come. The rain fell even harder, but the tornado danger had passed.

An hour later, I had to drive the truck to the barn to feed the critters; the horse shed was surrounded by a moat but both mares waded it to come under the shelter for dinner. The dogs weren't about to wade into their flooded kennel and neither was I. I had to negotiate all sorts of obstacles in the horse-trailer shed to get to the inside door of the dog stall. All four dogs were all wet and, by this time, so was I.

We didn't mind, though. It was finally raining—a couple of inches of real ground-soaking rain!

And the tornado didn't come!

~


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2 Comments:

Blogger Marion said...

Dick was over in the camper (yes, I do believe he is nearly moved in, although he returns to the house to watch the big flatscreen TV..)so I rushed out to tell him about the tornado watch at 4:30. By 5, it was lifted, so he told me I'd certainly over-reacted. HUH!

We didn't get the rain Penhook did, but we did get some heavy stuff...

8:50 PM  
Blogger CountryDew said...

Isn't it wonderful? We have not received the amount of rain I hear Franklin Co. did - we've only had a little over an inch. But we'll take all we can get.

7:19 AM  

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